The owner of one of Russia's oldest sparkling wine estates is planning to float the company to finance an expansion plan and build a luxury resort around the winery.

Abrau Durso, a former supplier to the Russian Imperial Court and the Kremlin, aims to double annual production from the current 18 million bottles to 36 mililon bottles with the capital raised.

It plans to sell a 15% stake in the company initially, leading to a larger float in the future, Pavel Titov of Abrau Durso, told Decanter.com.

'We feel we need to increase production capacity as supply is lagging behind demand. We are also heavily investing in a tourism project,' he said.

The lakeside winery is based an hour's drive from two popular Black Sea holiday resorts and mainly attracts day-trippers.

'We need to build a larger hotel. We have 42 rooms and we'd like another 120 rooms. We would also like to do a spa hotel and resort around the winery,' he added.

The Titov family, originally in the petrochemical business, has been involved in Abrau Durso since 2004. It currently produces around 2m bottles of methode traditionelle wine, with the remainder produced by the Charmat method.

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